The dashed lines point to similar bar cluster points. Would you have defined the area with the ? as a RET? Gabe
All of the lines aside from the bigger hinge (after the black exit dot) with the diamond were drawn during replay.
I don't quite understand all of the lines that you drew, but the area marked with a '?' I did see as a RET. BUT - with the 2nd bar in that area making an equal high, but lower low and then price just kind of hanging out/moving sideways, I didn't want to get sucked into a trade just to want to exit immediately. So for me, the safer (yet later entry) would be higher or lower than the prices already on the scene.
You're making decisions based on lines that can't be drawn until after the decision has to be made. Either you're looking ahead, or you're afraid of following the rules if they require you to make a trade that might not be a profitable one. This approach is not about all profits and no losses. It's about cutting your losses short --scratching -- and letting your profits run. You can't know in advance which will be which. If you have to know, you're going to have to get over it.
In the interests of saving time: A relatively mechanical approach, depending on how one defines "ret". One can use the bar itself, one can use the right-tick, or one can define it as a "pause". If this is milky, drop to a lower bar interval, e.g., 30s, and these overlong bars will disappear. They will become even more overlong if one goes to a higher interval, e.g., 2m or 3m, but there will be fewer trades, possibly more losers, possibly no trades at all.
I have struggled with this. I found dropping to a lower bar interval encouraged micro trading. the depth of a RET did (does) influence my feelings as a shallow RET doesn't retrace enough and a deep RET may be price turning. It seems to me there is a line in the sand where you take the trade and as Db says be prepared to scratch. You probably won't know for sure until you thoroughly backtest RETs. I am only starting down this journey myself so feel free to disregard. good luck
Key words here being "may be". "May be" is not part of the consideration. If there's a ret, take it. If it doesn't go and turns into a rev, either SAR or scratch. Guessing what's going to happen next defeats the purpose of this approach. Trade what's in front of you, not what you think is going to be in front of you.
My understanding of how to draw a DL and SL is as follows: Price moves in a particular direction. Price retraces some. Trader enters stop for a price one point away from the high or low of the RET depending on direction. Subsequent price movement either triggers the trade or not. If trade were triggered, DL or SL is drawn to highlight whether or not price continues to "go with the flow." With that in mind, I can definitely see how you'd think that I was drawing lines after the fact - and I am - after a trade is triggered. I do have a lot to get over and this is one thing, but I do realize that not every trade will go my way --- there will be scratches AND losses --- understandably. When you say, right-tick, do you mean the appropriate tick time for the trader or something happening on the right side of a bar or something else?